With just 72 holes left of the Web.com Tour Finals the nine Australasians teeing up in this week’s Tour Championship in Florida have everything to play for.
With just 72 holes left of the Web.com Tour Finals the nine Australasians teeing up in this week’s Tour Championship in Florida have everything to play for.
Only Cameron Percy is inside the all-important top 25 on the Finals money list which will determine PGA TOUR cards for next season, the Victorian entering the week as ‘Bubble Boy’ in 25th position.
Scott Hend is the only Australasian player to start the Finals but not tee up at Atlantic Beach Country Club this week, the 43-year-old instead electing to return to the European Tour for the British Masters after also skipping last week’s DAP Championship.
For the remaining players there is much to be done with Percy himself under plenty of pressure to first make the cut then finish high enough to at least maintain his position.
Curtis Luck is next best on the money list at 38th followed by Brett Drewitt (41st), Matt Jones (T47), Steve Alker (70), Tim Wilkinson (T76) with Stuart Appleby, Rhein Gibson Jamie Arnold all T90 after missing each of the first three cuts.
A top five result from any of the nine would see them earn their card for next season though Percy and Luck could mathematically finish lower than that this week and still advance depending on the results of others.
Stuart Appleby and Curtis Luck have the most to play for at opposite ends of their respective careers, Appleby trying to continue a 20-plus year stint on the world’s richest circuit while Luck tries to play his way to a rookie season.
Nine times a winner and one of only eight players to shoot a sub 60 round on the PGA TOUR, Appleby has been a fixture at the top of the game for Australian fans for two decades and motivation won’t be a problem for the 46-year-old this week.
Health, however, may be as back surgery in 2015 and the effects of age in an increasingly power based game take their toll.
There are no such issues for Luck who at 21 and a Professional less than a year is one of Australia’s brightest emerging prospects.
The West Australian US and Asia Pacific Amateur winner has proved he has the tools to play at the highest level and this week is his last chance to earn his place in the upper echelons of the game.
Regardless of whether he qualifies this week Luck will undoubtedly receive playing opportunities in 2018 but to have achieved his place on merit would be the ideal scenario.